Expedient Tools from a Functional Angle

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Expedient Technological Behavior: Global Perspectives and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In almost every culture of the world, expedient tools are present. They are “tools of the moment.” These flakes were crafted quickly with semi-improvised techniques, then used for a short period of time and discarded. The use of flakes as tools may not only indicate reuse or recycling of debitage waste, but also the existence of a real intention to manufacture blanks for immediate use. Expedient tools are not the most “glamorous” artifacts found on archaeological sites, they haven’t been as studied in comparison to formal tools. This is true from both a technological and a functional standpoint. The main challenge in order to diagnose the function of ad hoc tools is to decode their discrete use-wear traces by high magnification traceology. This can be possible thanks to an experimental reference frame. As a case study, we will talk about Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon’s prehistory. The French archipelago is located south of Newfoundland and was occupied by Paleoeskimo and Amerindian populations for 5,000 years. Recently, we performed traceological analyzes on formal tools found on the island and in a forthcoming project we aim to study the use-wear patterns of expedient tools in order to compare subsistence activities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Expedient Technological Behavior: Global Perspectives and Future Directions   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38584.0